Take a risk, take a chance

Dani let out a deep breath as she finished her story. She felt lighter, like she’d finally lifted a massive burden off her back, one she’d been carrying for so many years.

“So… yeah, that’s it,” she mumbled, looking down. “That’s why I stopped my art. It’s why I’m not sure… how I really feel. Or if I deserve to have those feelings.”

“Dani…” Carly was practically in tears. Seeing her saddened like that made Dani want to cry too.

“That must have been really rough for you,” Marley said. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“Me?” Dani’s eyes widened. “No, you don’t understand! That wasn’t about me! The whole point of that story was about how awful I was, to Joan! I demanded that she out herself to her family, and when she didn’t do that, I broke up with her! How terrible is that?!” Tears welled up in her eyes and she started shaking.

“I’m… a terrible person.”

“No!” Carly adamantly declared. “You’re not a terrible person! Yeah, you could have handled that a little more sensitively, but you know what? Fuck sensitivity!”

“Carly!” Marley exclaimed.

“No, I mean it!” Carly snapped. “Fuck her! She… she dragged you to meet her family, something you weren’t comfortable with, and then tried to pressure you into being with her, even if it would mean lying about who you were! If you want insensitive, that takes the cake! Yeah, you’re right, it was a shitty situation. And you shouldn’t have given Joan that ultimatum! But even then, you did it for HER sake! And if she wasn’t able to reveal who she was to her family, the least she could have done was not try to pressure you into hiding who you were, too! And if you two had to break up because of that, well… that’s life!”

She ran out of breath and had to stop. But she still looked desperately at Dani, hoping her words were having some effect.

And seeing the shocked look on Dani’s face, it was clear they were.

“Some people… they just can’t be together, for whatever reason,” Carly said softly, a sad echo of her own feelings. “Even if they love one another, it just doesn’t work.”

Dani knew what Carly was trying to say. And honestly… a part of her felt the same way.

“Carly, the reason I told you this story was because I wanted you to know everything about me,” Dani said. “Walking out on Joan like that was the biggest mistake of my life. And I’ve been paying for it ever since. But these past few weeks, through all this craziness, being with you has felt like the one good thing that’s happened. And when you told me how you felt on the Ferris Wheel, for a moment I wasn’t thinking about Joan. I was thinking about the possibility of you and I… of the two of us being together.”

She looked down at the ground.

“…But that’s impossible, isn’t it?”

“What!?” Marley exclaimed. “Why!?”

“Huh?” Dani and Carly both turned to Marley.

“Why is it impossible?” Marley demanded. “You both have feelings for one another! Why can’t you be together? What? Because of sex? Because Carly’s not sexually attracted to you? That’s fucking bullshit if you ask me!”

“Marley!” Carly’s eyes widened. Her face turned red.

“If two people care about each other, you make it work!” Marley asserted. “That’s it! That’s the whole story! Beginning and ending!”

Dani and Carly glanced at each other. Neither were sure what to make of Marley’s words, other than to acknowledge that they struck a chord, with the both of them.

“So… what do you think?” Dani asked quietly.

Carly bit her lip. “I think… I don’t know,” she admitted. “Dani, I want to be with you. Even if I don’t feel sexually aroused by you, I still want to be with you, but… there’s Nick, too.”

Dani winced.

“Unless I’m eliminated from this show, I’m still going to be tied to him in some way,” Carly said. “And if we stop having sex for your sake, I don’t know what that way will be. So I…”

“Well… okay, look, this is going to sound really awful, but… what if you didn’t stop having sex?” Dani felt like the biggest moron in the world for making that suggestion. “I mean, like you said… you’re not sexually attracted to me, so… if you used him like that…”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on there!” Carly held her hands up and shook her head. “No way, I’m not good with this. That just sounds so… no! And Nick… this is something we should talk about with him, first. I’m not good with making this decision myself.”

“Ugh… yeah, you’re right,” Dani admitted. The two shared a heated glance as they continued considering the future. “But in the end… what now? How… how do we decide things now?”

Carly bit her lip.

Neither girl had an answer.

Then, Carly made a suggestion.

“…What about this?” She said, looking seriously at Dani. “You said it’s okay for me to have sex with Nick, right?”

Dani nodded, but the **** on her face was clear. “I don’t love it, but if it makes you happy, then I’m okay with it.”

Carly sighed in relief. “Well, that’s good, then. Because tonight is my night with Nick. So… listen. Nick and I… I want to experiment with something. And then, tomorrow… after that… can we talk again? About how we feel about each other.”

If Carly’s experiment was a success, then everything would change. And if Dani was onboard, and Nick was onboard… then maybe they could make this work.

It all depended on whether or not Dani would agree with it, and wait.

Dani could tell that Carly was really troubled by something. And maybe, just maybe, she could ease some of her doubts. “I mean, I’m not going anywhere,” she assured her friend. “Take all the time you need, okay?”

Carly’s eyes widened, and she nodded. She resisted the urge to cry. “Oh, thank you, Dani. That means the world to me. Just… just one night, that’s all. And then I’ll prove that we can make this work.”

Dani wasn’t so sure. But if Carly wanted to try, then she would try. And maybe, they could both get the happy ending they were after.

Before that, though, there was something she had to do.

“We might not be able to make a decision before tomorrow,” Dani said, shaking her head, “but there’s something else I can make a decision on right now.”

She turned to Serenity, who was sitting in the water, watching the two of them talk without saying anything. She raised her eyebrow curiously.

“Dakota!” Dani shouted over the water.

In a snap, Dakota appeared in front of them with a sly smile on her lips.

“Ah, Dani, cutting it a bit close, are we?” She pulled out a gold pocketwatch and checked the time. “Very, very close.”

Dakota turned to Carly. “And as for you, shouldn’t you two be getting to the Master’s Suite soon? It’s your night, after all.”

“…I know,” Carly said, scowling. “But I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on here. Dani?” She turned to her friend with a concerned expression on her face.

Dani’s face looked adamant.

“Carly…” She glanced at her. “After you left… Nick and everybody else, they came to a consensus. They decided that it was okay for me to choose for myself, whether or not to accept Serenity here, and everything that comes with her.”

Dakota whistled. “She even told you her name? My, my, you two really did bond! Does that mean I should be looking forward to a positive response?”

Dani narrowed her eyes. “If by ‘positive response’ you mean saying yes to taking responsibility for her, then yes.”

Carly’s eyes widened. “What?!” She exclaimed. “Dani, no! You don’t have to-! What if it could be a trap or something?”

Dani looked at Serenity. If it was a trap, she didn’t care. This was the right thing to do, and nobody was going to talk her out of it.

“I already said yes,” she said, staring adamantly at Dakota. “So go on. Just… do whatever you’re going to do. Magic mojo or whatever.”

Dakota cracked an eyebrow up. “Ah, some ‘magic mojo’ is it? Some sim-sim-salabim or whatever the kids are calling it these days?”

“I’m older than you,” Dani snarkily responded.

“Only in human years, my dear,” Dakota said, barely hiding her contempt behind the thin veil of a smile. “Now then, last chance? Are you sure? From what I saw, you’re still working things out with Carly over there, weren’t you going to give her a chance?”

“What does THAT have to do with anything?” Dani demanded. “Send Serenity back. Back to where she came from. Earth.”

Dakota shook her head. “That was never part of the deal. She’ll remain right here, on Harem Hotel, looked after by you lot. Who knows? Maybe you’ll find a use for her. What do you say?”

Dani clenched her teeth. “Fine.”

Dakota’s smile took on a menacing glint.

“Well, perfect then,” she purred, lifting up her cane. “I’ll release her from her obligation to the hotel, then, and let her be her own free agent.”

The black crystal on the cane flashed, and Dakota grabbed Dani by the hand, shaking it roughly. Then Dani screamed.

“Aaah!” She clenched her wrist and fell to her knees, still held tight in Dakota’s grip. Her reflexes squeezed her fingers tight to make a fist out of instinct, which should have turned Dakota’s hand into soup, but it had no effect. Dakota’s magic was just that powerful.

“Dani!” Carly shouted, running over to her. She glared fiercely up at Dakota. “What did you do?!”

Dakota sniffed. “This is what ‘taking responsibility’ looks like,” she replied. “You can’t get something for nothing.”

Dani felt the burning sensation crawl up her hand, through her arm, and into her heart. Then it passed, and she was left with tingles.

Dani’s “Lesbian” Transformation Path changed to “Siren”!

“What?!” Dani’s eyes widened and finally Dakota’s grip lightened up. She yanked her hand away and fell back on her ass, staring up at the host in shock.

“Dani? What happened?” Marley asked.

“Dani and I just made a bargain,” Dakota said simply. “She agreed to take responsibility for looking after sweet Serenity. Which means that now, they share the same transformation path. I was tempted to bring our little siren here in as a partner pairing, like you and your sister, but I decided not to. Serenity had her chance, after all. And frankly, one girl who doesn’t want to be in Nick’s harem is more than enough.”

“So now what?” Dani demanded. “Am I going to grow gills or something like that?”

“Sirens don’t have gills,” Serenity softly reminded her.

“…Okay, well, that wasn’t really my point,” Dani mumbled, her cheeks flushing. “I just mean… look, this whole thing, that wasn’t what I agreed to!”

“You didn’t know what you agreed to,” Dakota pointed out. “You just ran right into it, because of your good heart. But luckily, I have a good heart of my own. No, the only thing that’s changed for you, Dani, is that instead of getting transformations from the “Lesbian” Transformation Path, you’ll now be getting transformations from the “Siren” Transformation Path. Honestly? You should be grateful! Your buddy had to spend 5000 BP to get HER Transformation Path changed!”

Believe it or not, “grateful” wasn’t the emotion Dani was feeling right now. But she knew better than to express her “gratitude” to the woman in front of her.

“So that’s it, then?” She asked for clarification, narrowing her eyes. “My Transformation Path changes? Nothing else?”

Dakota shook her head. “Nothing else. Only, now you’ll have to find a place for her. Fortunately for you, that witless replacement of mine added all sorts of water features to my island. I’m sure you can come up with SOMETHING.”

Dani considered what Dakota was saying. Now that the pain had passed, she could start thinking about the situation with a clear head. And honestly…

Honestly?

“Okay then,” she said, standing up and brushing herself off. “I can work with this.”

“Really?” Carly asked, surprised.

“Really?” Dakota sounded just as surprised as Carly did.

“Yeah,” Dani nodded. “I mean, the Lesbian Transformation Path had awful transformations that seemed full of really gross stuff. But Siren… maybe that could be something better.”

She seriously doubted it, though.

Dakota stared mutely at the girl for a moment. “…Well, if you feel better telling yourself that,” she mumbled, turning to Carly. “As for you… a one-way trip to the Master’s Suite seems to be in order, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Wait, wait!” Carly shook her head frantically. “Not yet!”

Dakota lowered her cane. She was starting to get really sick of these girls trying to argue with her. “…Okay, why?”

“I, uh… I need to do something first,” Carly begged. She pushed a shaky smile to her face. “Come on, it’s going to be really sexy!”

Dakota blinked. Then her lips slowly turned up into a smile. “…How sexy?”

Carly burst into her room, startling Rose and Sylvia. They’d been sitting on the bed watching an old movie Rose had picked out (one that Sylvia had been trying not to sleep through) and were surprised to see Carly there.

Sylvia, still fresh off her memories from last night, screamed bloody ****.

“Carly? Marley? What’s going on?” Rose asked, frowning.

“It’s past curfew!” Sylvia gasped, stopping to catch her breath now that she’d settled down. “You guys should be in the Master’s Suite!”

Carly shook her head. “We got a brief reprieve,” she said, nodding to her sister. “Courtesy of your creator.”

“Dakota? A reprieve? That sounds… unlikely,” Sylvia said, scrunching up her face in confusion. “Okay, what’s going on? Why are you here?”

Carly turned to Rose.

“I’m here for you,” she said to the blonde.

Rose blinked. Her mouth fell open and she held her hand over her heart. “Really? Moi?”

Carly noted.

“Why, I’m flattered!” Rose gasped, turning red and squirming with delight. “I mean, I know you and Dani have all that tension, but I always secretly thought that you and I maybe had a thing… oh, this is so difficult! I’m sorry, but my heart belongs to Nick…”

Carly rolled her eyes. “Stop being cute,” she groaned. “That’s not what I meant.”

Rose stuck her tongue out playfully. “Sorry, that’s not quite possible.”

Sylvia scowled. “Can someone please tell me what’s going on?!” She begged.

“I need to borrow Rose for the night,” Carly said, turning to the blonde. “We have business in the Master’s Suite.”

Rose’s eyes widened. “Oh. That’s what you meant… I see. Can I ask why?”

“Sex,” Carly said bluntly.

“…Yeah, you’re gonna need to explain WAY more,” Rose said, shaking her head. “What the heck are you talking about?”

Carly sighed. “Okay, so… look, I like Dani, alright? Like, I want to date her. But… I’m not sexually attracted to her. And I’ve slept with women in the past, and I know they can pleasure me, but… I don’t know if I’d enjoy it enough to make Dani happy. To make myself happy. And that’s why… I want to do a threesome. With you and Nick.”

“Okay, first off, REALLY big ask,” Rose said, holding up her finger. “I’m not attracted to women! At all! What, just because I’m French, you think I’m just down for anything?”

“No, I think you want as much Nick time as you can get, that’s why I assumed you’d be up for it,” Carly bluntly replied.

“…Okay, fair.”

“Also, it’s because of your transformation, Marital Aide,” Carly explained. “That will boost the pleasure for all of us involved. And I just thought… I mean… I want it to feel good… I want it to feel right… so I want to make this feel the best it can.”

In spite of her promiscuity, Carly had never been in a real threesome before. And certainly not with another girl! She wanted every advantage she could get to convince her body that it was okay to love another woman.

Rose gasped. “Why, I never! So you’re just after me for my body!?”

Carly sighed and rubbed her temples. She was pretty chill most of the time, but Rose’s attitude was starting to grate on her. “Rose…”

“I know, I know, I’m just teasing,” Rose assured her. “But hey, I’m just glad that you picked me over having sex with your sister!”

Carly made a face. Even she had her limits. It was one thing to pleasure Nick with Marley- but to actually engage in sexual acts with her? That was something she wasn’t sure she wanted anything to do with.

Marley seemed just as grossed out.

“But wait, what about me?” Sylvia whined. “You three are just going to go to the Master’s Suite with Daddy and leave me by myself?”

“No, we didn’t say that,” Marley assured her.

Sylvia’s eyes widened and her face lit up. “Oh! Then, can I come too?”

Carly tensed for a different reason. “That’s… I don’t know about that,” she admitted. In spite of how casually she usually handled sex, she couldn’t deny that this was an intimate act. And given how Nick seemed to act around Sylvia, she wasn’t sure if bringing the girl who acted like she was his daughter would be a smart move.

“I thought of something else, actually,” Carly said, glancing at her sister. “Sylvia, you still haven’t used your veto transformation, right?”

Sylvia blinked. “Oh, you mean Fuck the Voters? No, not yet. I’ve been kind of worried about bothering people with that one,” she admitted.

“Well, I was thinking, could you use it on me?” Carly asked.

Sylvia blinked. “On… you?”

“That’s right,” she nodded. “See, if you veto the transformation that makes Marley into my sister, then you would be able to spend tonight with her, right? Then it can just be me and Rose in the Master’s Suite, and you and Marley can catch up together.”

Sylvia tensed. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea, my girl,” she said, her playful tone turning serious. That sent a chill down Carly’s spine. She glanced at her sister, who looked just as uncertain.

“I tried to tell you,” Marley said, shaking her head.

“If I vetoed that transformation in particular, it could have some really nasty effects,” Sylvia warned. “It’s not something you want to be playing around with. I’d be temporarily re-rewriting your entire past for the whole rest of the round. Is that really something you want to do when your emotions are so haywire right now?”

“But I can copy it,” Rose pointed out. “Right? And that hasn’t had any negative effects, it just adds me to the narrative.”

“But that’s the thing, that narrative only works because it is CARLY’S backstory,” Sylvia reminded her. “You’re copying Carly’s transformation and making yourself into Marley’s sister, and then becoming Carly’s sister by default. But that’s not what happens when I do it. If I veto the transformation, then Carly never HAD a sister. Marley becomes my sister, and only my sister, and the ramifications of that… well, let’s just say that ‘Marley’ would stop being ‘Marley’ for a couple days, until the veto wore off and Carly got the transformation back. She’d become MY sister, and when the memories come back, she’d be BOTH of our sisters, permanently, and… no. We can’t do that.”

“I-I don’t want my past rewritten like that,” Marley said frantically, shaking her head.

“Yeah, I agree, I didn’t think it would be that much of a headache,” Carly groaned.

“Plus, there’s something much worse that you aren’t considering yet, my girls,” Sylvia said solemnly. Her face was deathly fraught with darkness. “…If Marley becomes my sister, that means Dakota would become her mother. And, more importantly, I would STOP becoming her mother. And I’m not doing that.”

Carly really hadn’t thought this all the way through.

“Oh! I know what we can do!” Rose brightened, picking up the mood of the room. “Sylvia, you can just veto MY transformation, Method Acting! And that way, you can use it to copy Carly’s transformation the way I do!”

“You’d really do that?” Carly asked, surprised. “But you love that transformation.”

“Ah, it’s fine,” Rose scoffed. “I get it back at the end of the round anyway, right?” She asked, turning to Sylvia.

Sylvia nodded. “Yeah, you do, but… that won’t work, either.”

“Huh?” Rose frowned. “Why not?!”

“I just told you. That would make ME Marley’s sister, and not her mother. I’m not doing that.”

“Come on, mom!” Marley groaned. “Look, I’m happy you care that much, but you can put up with it for a day just to let Carly have this one, right?”

“I could,” Sylvia admitted. “But… we don’t have to.”

Carly’s frown turned into a look of confusion. “Really? What do you mean?”

“What I mean is, instead of trying to copy your transformation, or take it away, there’s something else we can do, instead, my girl,” Sylvia explained.

“What’s that?” Marley asked.

Sylvia smiled. “We can upgrade it, of course!”

Carly blinked. “…Upgrade?”

“Yes, my girl!” Sylvia nodded. “An upgrade! Didn’t you check your list?” She grabbed the list of purchasable items from the desk. “It says right here, you can upgrade your own transformation for 1000 BP! Quite a bargain, wouldn’t you say?”

Carly looked the list over.

• 1000 BP: Increase the severity of one of your Transformations

“It says it increases the severity of one of my transformations,” she said suspiciously. “Not upgrade. You’re sure this is gonna help?”

Sylvia waved her hand. “Severity, upgrade, it’s all the same really. Trust me, my girl, I carefully crafted that transformation, I know exactly what the upgrade will look like.”

“You do have a ton of BP that you don’t spend,” Marley pointed out.

Carly bit her lip. “True… okay, Sylvia, I’m trusting you on this. But if you screw me over…”

“If I screw you over, then I’d be screwing Marley over,” Sylvia said, her tone deathly serious. “Do you honestly think I would do that?”

That was enough for Carly.

Carly: 9100 BP – 1000 BP = 8100 BP

Light flashed around Carly, and spread from her to her sister. The two began to glow, and then the light faded.

Carly pulled up a screen to take a look at her new transformation.

• Marley and Me*: From this moment on, “Mimi” no longer exists. While she still retains all the memories of her past as a Mimic Jelly, she has now received new memories and a new past to go along with her human body. She has become “Marley”, Carly’s twin sister. Everyone will remember Carly always having a sister, and she’s always been on the show. Marley will become Carly’s double on the show; they will participate in challenges together and share the same bed. However, Marley is incapable of earning any points for the two of them. She is merely an extra set of hands in the bedroom, and will be treated as a second Carly. UPGRADE: Carly may now assign a contestant to become Marley’s babysitter. During this time, the chosen contestant will have all restrictions normally placed on Carly in regards to her sister. For every 12 hours that elapse in this arrangement (rounded up) the babysitter will receive 500 BP from Carly. All babysitting duties end upon the beginning of a challenge. (Elimination)

It took a second for the upgrade to sink in.

“Whoa, wait a second!” Carly gasped. “Then this means, Marley and I can split up whenever we want?!”

“Finally!” Marley cheered.

“It’s not that simple though,” Sylvia stated. “To start, the person you choose as babysitter must agree to the arrangement. They’re the one who will be taking on the new responsibility of being Marley’s caretaker. And furthermore, even if you only split up for an hour, or just a couple of minutes, you still have to pay them 500 BP, since it rounds up.”

“I’m fine with that,” Carly assured her. “I’ve got a ton of BP, after all.”

“This way, we get to spend the night with Nick, all by ourselves!” Rose cheered.

“And I get to spend time with Marley!” Sylvia hugged her tightly, and Marley smiled a shy smile.

Carly nodded, and smiled as well. “Sylvia, how do I use this? Do I just ask or something?”

“You ask, and I agree,” Sylvia explained. “Then we shake.”

Carly nodded again. The two shook hands, and custody of Marley transferred from Carly to Sylvia.

“Oh, man, I just realized!” Rose groaned, smiling. “Sylvia, you were the host! I can’t believe we didn’t think of this before! We can ask her all about what our upgrades do! Talk about a powerful tool in our arsenal.”

Sylvia winced.

“Oh, I didn’t mean it like that!” Rose hastily clarified. “I wasn’t saying you were a tool, I just meant your knowledge was!”

Sylvia shook her head. “No, that’s not it. I don’t think I’m going to be that helpful to you, that’s all.”

“Why?” Carly asked, frowning. “Is there some rule against telling us about our upgrades?”

Sylvia shook her head again. “No, nothing like that. It’s just that I don’t know what your upgrades do.”

Carly and Rose stared blankly at Sylvia, and even Marley was confused.

“…Why not? You picked them out, didn’t you?” Carly asked.

“Well, yeah, but you think I remember that stuff?” Sylvia rolled her eyes. “I only knew what that one did because it was Marley’s transformation! I know what all HER transformations’ upgrades were. I forgot about the rest of you girls’ ages ago.”

Marley sighed and rolled her eyes. Rose burst out laughing.

Carly took a deep breath, and exhaled. It wasn’t that big of a deal. She would normally let something like this slide. She was just worked up right now, that was all.

She turned her focus away from what was going on with the girls, and towards tonight. “We need to go,” she said to Rose. “It’s time to head to the Master’s Suite!”

“Alright!” Rose chirped. “Bye, guys! Have fun together!”

“You too!” Marley called. And when she saw her sister pass the ten-foot threshold to leave the room, her heart skipped a beat.

Marley and Sylvia turned to each other and smiled. Tonight might be really serious for Carly, but for the two of them? It was sure to be a good time!